Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23398853›Full record

ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2013

Exploring power and parameter estimation of the BiSSE method for analyzing species diversification.

Matthew P Davis, Peter E Midford, Wayne Maddison

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
77citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
57.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

77 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 290 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Speciation through chromosomal fusion and fission in Lepidoptera.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Fossils improve extinction-rate estimates under state-dependent diversification models.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Bird lineages colonizing urban habitats have diversified at high rates across deep time.Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology · 2022
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Macroevolutionary consequences of mast seeding.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Article

17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Matthew P DavisThe Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA. mdavis2@fieldmuseum.org
Peter E Midford
Wayne Maddison
Field Museum of Natural History · USNational Evolutionary Synthesis Center · USUniversity of British Columbia · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThere has been a considerable increase in studies investigating rates of diversification and character evolution, with one of the promising techniques being the BiSSE method (binary state speciation and extinction). This study uses simulations under a variety of different sample sizes (number of tips) and asymmetries of rate (speciation, extinction, character change) to determine BiSSE's ability to test hypotheses, and investigate whether the method is susceptible to confounding effects.

resultsWe found that the power of the BiSSE method is severely affected by both sample size and high tip ratio bias (one character state dominates among observed tips). Sample size and high tip ratio bias also reduced accuracy and precision of parameter estimation, and resulted in the inability to infer which rate asymmetry caused the excess of a character state. In low tip ratio bias scenarios with appropriate tip sample size, BiSSE accurately estimated the rate asymmetry causing character state excess, avoiding the issue of confounding effects.

conclusionsBased on our findings, we recommend that future studies utilizing BiSSE that have fewer than 300 terminals and/or have datasets where high tip ratio bias is observed (i.e., fewer than 10% of species are of one character state) should be extremely cautious with the interpretation of hypothesis testing results.

Indexed as

Extinction, BiologicalGenetic SpeciationModels, BiologicalComputational BiologyComputer SimulationLikelihood Functions

Identifiers

PMID23398853
PMCPMC3583807
OpenAlexW2146907710

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.